


Dark Ice

by Notsalony



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Captivity, Drugs, M/M, Torture, hurt!Len
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 14:22:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9328622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony
Summary: Len’s been missing for months after the end of Legends and the death of the occulus, but now he’s returned and he’s not the same.  Who can reach into the dark void of his experience and find him lost in the shadow?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written to “War” by Former Vandal, I think, it was created as a fan tribute for Stiles when he was becoming Void Stiles in Teen Wolf.

Let the Darkness come for me, Let it try to steal my soul,  
As I had a soul to steal.  
Let the Darkness come for me, Let it try to steal my soul,  
As I had a soul to steal.  
Let the Darkness come for me, Let it try to steal my soul,  
As I had a soul to steal.  
Hold me, tell me life is but a dream.  
Save me...  
\- “War” By Former Vandal.

 

* * *

  
  
  
Len was vaguely aware that he was outside.  New.  Usually they kept him in their cramped cage or on the slab when they were doing things... He let his mind drift over it. He was outside.  He looked around and spotted a window on a building and looked at himself.  Too skinny from not hardly eating, fresh cuts and wounds marring some of his tattoos, a busted lip and a severely bruised face, topped off by the black eye he had.  It took him a bit to shiver as he began to feel just how cold it was to be standing here naked and alone on this empty street.  He needed to find some where that he could get warm... Fuck was it cold.  He started to walk and felt the ache of his ankle, looking down he noticed for the first time since becoming aware of being outside that his ankle was probably broken.  He winced as he hobbled down the sidewalk, leaning heavily on the buildings as he tried to figure out where the hell he was.  He noticed a shop of some kind that had a simple glass front door.  He found a stray brick and smashed in the window, reaching inside and opening the lock as he huddled in on himself to get into the store.  
  
It seemed to be some sort of shoe store.  Nothing to eat he bet.  Maybe something to keep warm?  He wandered around the shop as little as his leg would allow him before he found a jacket someone had mercifully left behind in their rush home from this place.  Len wrapped himself in it and curled up on the carpet.  Everything felt hazy as he lay there on the carpet shivering.  He swore he heard someone come in.  A gruff voice threatening him, and then he was roughly pulled up to face the Green Arrow.  Oh, he was in Star City.  
  
“Sarah okay?” Len asked, his eyes blank and hollow as he looked at Oliver.  
  
“Snart, where... Sarah said you were dead.” Oliver looked at him and looked around confused as to why he was practically naked.  
  
“I was.  A couple times.  It’s not as much fun as she made it out to be.” Len saw blackness at the edge of his vision.  “Oh, looks like it’s coming back.” He say drying before he lost consciousness.  He remembered a gray hazy moment of being some where flat and cold and being wrapped in blankets before he was back in the blackness.  He slept and drempt of sharp blades and whirring tools cutting into his flesh and endless screams in pitch blackness that seemed to swallow him up again and again before he woke up screaming, scrambling for the edge of the bed he was in.  He looked around shocky and barely able to register that he had an iv in his arm, mentally holding it to his wrist so that he didn’t pull it out.  Sometimes they gave him pain killers, sometimes harder stuff.  Sometimes it was the blue shit that made him throw up as it burned his insides.  This didn’t burn so he wasn’t about to give it up.  
  
“Leonard.” Caitlin Snow approached him slowly, a warm looking blanket in her hands out stretched for him to take.  He gave a look like he was afraid she’d take it away or hurt him but he carefully took it from her.  She let him have it and he wrapped it around himself, shivering as he watched her with dark eyes.  “I’m glad you woke up, that’s a start.  Do you know where you are?”  
  
“When...” Len’s voice broke, dry and cracked as he tried to speak.  
  
“2016.” She gave him a firm look, so he was back home that worked.  
  
“Star labs, Central?” He looked at her and she nodded.  “home...” His voice broke before he started sobbing.  She quickly went to him and wrapped her arms around him holding him gently, noting the burn marks on his back with care.  
  
“The Legends told us you died....” Caitlin said slowly.  
  
“Did.” Len nodded into her shoulder.  “Did a lot.” He looked up at her, his eyes so broken that she felt the breath catch in her throat.  “They wanted to see what it did to me... Us...” He looked up at her pleading for some nameless thing so she held him through it.  
  
“Who had you?” She asked quietly.  
  
“Wings... Big wings...” He shivered before the darkness took him again.  He didn’t dream this time as he drifted into that black place.  
  


***

  
  
“Lisa, hey it’s Cisco.” Cisco said into his cell as he stood outside the med bay.  
  
“What do I owe this pleasure beautiful.” She had been coming around to be around people who made her remember the fun times with her brother.  She missed him, and knowing he was dead had hit her harder then they’d thought.  
  
“I have a big shock of a surprise waiting at the lab for you.” Cisco hedged.  
  
“You know I don’t like shocks of surprises.”  
  
“Your brother’s sitting in the med bay.” Cisco ripped the band aid off as he told her.  
  
“They found his body?” She held her breath, not sure if she was ready to see what was left of him, they’d told her how he’d died.  Mick had broken a lot of shit over it.  
  
“He was found in Star City wandering around.”  
  
“Wait... Are you saying...”  
  
“Len’s alive.” Cisco tried to hold back tears.  “He’s in a bad way, and he’s freaking out when ever he wakes up... But he’s alive.”  
  
“Oh god.” Lisa started sobbing.  
  
“I wanted you to be the first to know.  Green Arrow called us last night and Flash went out and got him and brought him here.  We figured it was safer here for him then in an actual hospital.” Cisco left out the fact that they’d filed the paperwork to declare him legally dead two weeks after the Legends had been back and told everyone.  
  
“Has he said where he was?” Lisa asked quietly.  
  
“No, but form the look of him... He wasn’t in a good place.” Cisco sighed and quickly snapped a picture before sending it to Lisa.  
  
“Jesus!” She cursed having opened the photo.  
  
“Who ever had him worked him over bad...” Cisco closed his eyes putting the back of his head against the walls around the med bay.  
  
“How bad?” She swallowed hard.  
  
“So far, I don’t think there’s a bone they didn’t break, they cut into him bad, and who ever it was had some serious tech because there’s signs of aggressive amputations that they regrew or reattached, bad burns that have barely healed, and a lot of damage that looks fresh.  I... He keeps saying they killed him just to see how dying and coming back effected him.” Cisco was sitting on the floor speaking into the phone so close to tears as he sat there talking to Lisa.  
  
“Shit...”  
  
“You need a ride?” Cisco asked, a tear actually going down his cheek.  
  
“Yeah, I’ll call Mick, the loading docks still open for us?”  
  
“Yeah, we made up one of the labs into a kind of crash room for you to sleep in.  Figured you’d want to stay close to him.  And he’s not going to be moving for some time.”  
  
“Who else knows he’s alive?” Lisa asked, her voice going quiet.  
  
“You, me, Caitlin, The Flash, Green Arrow, and his crew.  That’s it.  We’re keeping it quiet, he’s in no shape to even try to fight anyone, let alone face any sort of legal system.” Cisco looked around the corner where Caitlin was helping lay a clearly unconscious Len down on the bed.  Cisco heard the tears in his own voice.  “Who ever did this broke him for the hell of it and then put him back together to watch him fall apart again.  Some sick fuck is out there and I’m not sure if he’ll ever be Captain Cold again...” He trailed off.  
  
“I’ll be there soon.” Lisa was steeling herself for the situation.  
  
“K.  I’ll make sure the dock is open.” He wished her a safe travel and said his goodbyes before hanging up.  
  
“She on her way?”  
  
“She’s bringing Mick.” Cisco looked up at Barry.  
  
“Means Ray’ll be here soon.” He looked out into the other room.  “I’ll call the Legends while they’re on their way.”  
  
“Okay.” Cisco said quietly, his forehead on his knees.  
  
“I’ll get the dock ready, just... Hang tight okay?” Barry crouched down and looked Cisco in the eyes.  
  
“They took Cold from the Time Lord’s bad guy base while he was burning up... And they did shit to him I don’t even know the words for... They took Cold of all people, what hope do any of us have against them?” Cisco looked afraid.  
  
“We have each other.  And we know that they can do this sort of thing so we know not to trust any apparent deaths.  And once we work out who did this, we’ll put a stop to this shit.”  
  
“And what if it’s happening some time in the distant future, at the end of time or something like that?” Cisco looked like he was going to be sick.  
  
“Then we’re going to crowd onto Rip’s ship and we’re going to go kick their teeth in.” Barry hugged his friend.  
  
“He’s resting.  The sedative seems to hit him harder then it did before.  His metabolism is severely damaged.  I don’t know everything they’ve done to him, but I have a feeling they’ve done more then we know about.” She held up the plastic cup that’d been full of water for Len to drink when he woke up if he was thirsty, showing the solid block of ice that had been the water.  “I think they might have turned him into a meta.”  
  
“Fuck...” Barry looked back into the room, wondering what fresh hell Len was in for now with powers.  
  
“I also don’t like the look of the x ray of his broken ankle.” She brought it up on one of the monitors and zoomed in.  “Near as I can tell they put some sort of tech into the bone, a regular hospital wouldn’t have found it, but I check for all kinds of things since we started having to deal with alternate realities, time travel, metas, and worse.” She looked at Barry.  “I think it’s a tracking device.”  
  
“Meaning they know exactly where he is.”  
  
“And with this kind of tech, they might be able to come get him any time they want, and I’m not sure we can stop them if they decide they want him back.” She shook her head.  “He’s still in shock from it all.  He is also showing signs of withdrawal from what ever they had him on.  I’m testing his systems to see what he was addicted to... But if we can’t find it...” She looked at Barry.  
  
“We may need to find them sooner rather then later because he’s not going to detox and get over what ever it was is he?”  
  
“Everything I’ve seen, they’ve made it to where he depends on the compound what ever it was.  And with out it... I don’t know how long he’ll be stable.” She looked down.  “He’s fine right now, a little shaky and in shock, but... He could break into full blown withdrawal at any time.”  
  
“We need Gideon’s tech from Rip’s ship if we can’t make the chemical ourselves.” Cisco looked up at them.  
  
“I’ll call after I get the docks open.” Barry flashed away leaving them in his wake as he zipped into the docks and opened them up before pausing to fish his cell phone out, a text from Ray.  
  
‘on our way’ Barry smiled.  
  
‘dock 3 is open and ready, i’ll wait on you guys’ Barry sent back before scrolling through his contacts.  “Hey Jax, you still on the wave rider working on the power distribution system?”  
  
“Yeah, what’s up?”  
  
“I need you to get the team together and over to Star Labs.  Leonard Snart was found alive and wandering around last night with signs of being tortured for months.”  
  
“Fuck....”  
  
“Yeah.  Ray and Mick are on their way in.  Lisa’s with them.  Oliver knows but I don’t know if he’s told Sarah yet. She’s probably on her way if she is.”  
  
“She’s sleeping off a hang over in her room.  I’ll tell her.  Me and Grey will be there soon.”  
  
“Make sure you have Rip here too.  We may need his ship.  They used tech similar to his ship’s to torture him and it’s bad.  They addicted him to something that he needs to survive.  We don’t know what it is, and we’re trying to figure out what it is so we can see if we can make it.”  
  
“But if you can’t we might need to have Gideon mix it up?”  
  
“Yeah...” Barry felt himself going distant, the world slowing down around him.  
  
“You okay?” Jax said after what was probably too long of silence.  
  
“It’s bad, and... Yeah I’m... I’m dealing.” Barry sighed.  
  
“See you in... Maybe two hours?”  
  
“Dock 3 will be open.”  
  
“Cool.” Jax hung up and Barry sat down and waited till Mick’s truck pulled into the docks.  Lisa jumped out and Barry told her the main med lab where they’d helped her when she was there because of Lewis.  She took off running.  
  
“Red.” Mick stood up, his face grave.  
  
“It’s him.  He’s alive.” Barry nodded to Mick.  “He’s just...” Barry trailed off as the world seemed to slow down around him, his mind going to a blank place as he stood there lost before Mick shook him.  “What?”  
  
“You were vibrating...” Ray commented standing back.  He’d started dating Mick shortly after Len’s death, and they’d been doing pretty good. Mick took to having a burning range where he could use his gun to his heart’s content.  
  
“I... I’m not sure what’s wrong. Ever since I saw him... Picked up his fragile too thin form from Oliver... I just...” He shook again.  
  
“That bad?” Mick asked.  
  
“I want to hand over who ever did this to him for you to empty your gun on them.” Barry looked into Mick’s eyes.  
  
“Shit.” Ray said quietly.  
  
“No arguments, you’d just let me burn them alive?”  
  
“I’d let you do it and then bring them back to do it again a few dozen times.” Barry had a hard look in his eyes.  
  
“Let’s go see him.” Mick nodded, understanding how bad this had to be for the Flash to want revenge to the point of murder.  He left out that he was pretty sure that the need for revenge on that scale wasn’t just because he was the good guy and Len was a work friend.  That level of hate towards someone who hurt someone you knew bordered on something so much deeper between the pair.  Mick knew better then to poke that hornets’ nest.  It had taken him ages to figure out that he’d taken a shine to Haircut, but now most nights they shared a bunk and so much more.  Mick looked at Ray and gave him a nod.  
  
“So any indication how he made it to Star City?” Ray asked as they walked.  
  
“No, but we have found traces of tachyon radiation on his skin, and traces of an unknown energy pattern in his cells.  But we’re still sorting that out from his new meta systems.” Mick stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.  
  
“He’s a meta now?”  
  
“Yeah, two guesses what power he got.” Barry smiled.  
  
“Oh god kid.” Mick shook his head.  “He was bad enough with the gun.” He shook his head and turned back around.  
  
“So tachyons?” Ray redirected the conversation.  
  
“Yeah.  We’re not even sure when or where they were holding him.  Major tech at play.  There’s signs they cut off limbs and regrew them over and over again.  Damage on a scale I’d be hard pressed to see anyone outside of my healing factor deal with.”  
  
“We might be able to track it.  We’ll have to go back to the shop Oliver found him at and back track.” Ray was already thinking about that.  
  
“Yeah.  I just hope we can get him in his right mind so he can start to control his powers.” The lights flickered as caught up with Lisa.  Len was laying in bed shivering as a light sheen of ice formed over everything in the room.  “Shit.” Barry flashed into the room checking Len’s vitals, hissing as the cold began to creep up his bare arms, he hissed as he started shaking Len.  “Wake up, come on Cold, you have to wake up.” Barry shook him till Len sat bolt up right, his eyes ice blue and wide, too wide as he skittered away from Barry as if he was afraid of him.  All at once the ice in the room started melting as panic filled Len’s system and shut off the parts of his mind that clearly needed to be active to use his powers.  
  
“Hey.” Barry whispered against Len as he hugged him. “You’re okay.  You’re okay.” He whispered it over and over till Len calmed down enough to realize who was there with him.  
  
“Sorry I’m being such a pain Scarlet.” Len couldn’t even pull a smile on his drawn face.  
  
“It’s okay.  We just weren’t expecting your powers.” Barry smiled.  
  
“Powers?” Len looked around noticing the ice for the first time.  
  
“All you.  Not sure what they did to you, but...” His voice faded out of Len’s conscious mind as he was suddenly back there, laying naked in the dark screaming as they cut into his flesh, the wet tearing noise just before the sound of bones breaking and limbs being torn off and thrown against a wall some where in the distance.  The ticking trilling noise of their language as they discussed what they were doing.  The boring into his bones while he bled out from the severed limbs... He slowly came back from the edge of that hearing Barry’s voice again, realizing he was clutching Barry for dear life, ice surrounding them like a wall to keep them safe from the others.  
  
“don’t wanna...” Len heard someone say and it took a couple times of hearing it to realize he was the one saying it.  Saying he didn’t want to go back, didn’t want to talk about it.  He was scared to even think about that place, like the thought alone could swallow him whole.  He slowly took control of his breathing, the blind panic subsiding but the wall staying there.  
  
“It’s okay.” Barry rubbed little circles on his back as he held him.  “It’s okay.”  
  
“Barry it’s so far from okay I can’t even see it with a space ship’s sensors.” Len’s voice was flat and lacking any inflection as he slowly regained control over himself.  
  
“You want the good news or the bad news?” Barry said after a while as Len slowly calmed down and the wall of ice didn’t seem to be melting or growing.  
  
“What’s the good?”  
  
“We can probably track these fuckers down and teach them why this shit isn’t okay.” He said calmly as he rubbed Len’s back, trying to keep him calm.  “We just need to go back to where Oliver found you and back track till we find where you came from.”  
  
“And the bad news?” Len kept his voice flat.  
  
“They put a tracker in your ankle and it’s sending out a variety of signals that we don’t know how to block, so they know exactly when and where you are.” The ice got thicker and completely sealed around them.  “Shit.  That was the wrong thing to say.” Barry sighed as he went back to trying to rub Len’s back gently.  
  
“I won’t go back there.” Len finally looked at him once the ice stopped growing.  
  
“I know.”  
  
“No.  You don’t.  None of you do.  That... They...” He struggled to even shape the words let alone the thoughts about it.  “They worked on me every minute of every day, in shifts.  One set studying one thing came on for a couple hours in the morning, the next shift was working on something else, and so on.  There were nine shifts a day.  I never was given a break.  Even when they put me in the cage and took me off the table I was never left alone.” He looked at Barry.  “They weren’t human.  Don’t know who they were.  Don’t know a think about them, other then the fact that they seriously wanted to see how far they could push me.  I’m pretty sure they pushed me into psychosis a couple times.” He had to fight off a panic attack as he thought back.  “Messed with my head, my body... Everything.” He gave a hallowed out look at Barry.  “But if they come for me.  I’ll either kill them or I’ll make sure they can’t bring me back to life.” He gave a hard look at Barry.  
  
“It wont come to that.” Barry had stilled, a cold unnatural stillness that in anyone else would have looked like they were trying for neutral, but with Barry who was always in constant motion, being that abnormally still meant he was panicking himself.  Len wasn’t sure how to process that Barry was worried and more about him killing himself.  Didn’t the kid understand, he’d been dead before.  Several times.  He’d lost count of the ways they’d killed him only to wake up screaming as they brought him back.  A few times they’d brought him back not whole just to see how he’d handle the shock of it.  Bleeding out was the worst.  It seemed to go on and on if the wounds weren’t deep enough to make it quick.  Drowning in his own blood was bad too.  He was shacking when Barry got on the bed and wrapped himself around Len and just held him, rocking with him to slowly calm him down.  
  
“I’m sorry.” Len said after a long time, the ice finally thinning and starting to evaporate.  
  
“I get it.” Barry held on till the ice was gone.  “Lisa’s got a place in the building where she’ll be near by if you want her here.” Barry said now that they were talking again.  
  
“Thanks.”  
  
“Mick’s getting a room ready for him and Ray.”  
  
“What?” Len frowned.  
  
“Yeah they’re a couple.” Barry chuckled.  
  
“A couple of what?”  
  
“They’re dating.” Barry frowned now.  
  
“But Mick’s not into guys.” Len frowned.  
  
“Apparently they found something after you....”  
  
“After I died the first time.” Len got that far away look in his eyes again as he thought about that.  “I’m glad Mick found someone.  I was afraid they’d have to kill him.”  
  
“Probably would have had to if Haircut hadn’t kissed me.” Mick smirked.  
  
“I half imagine you punching him in the face for that.” Len looked up at Mick, his look showing he meant it as a joke but he didn’t seem to be able to put the tone in there yet.  
  
“I slammed him against the wall in the mess.”  
  
“And?” Len barely managed to arch an eyebrow before he went down and his face went blank again.  
  
“Kissed him good and hard till he was begging to breathe.” Mick smirked.  
  
“Still glad you found someone.” Len nodded.  
  
“Sounds like you might need someone too.” Mick gave Len the look that clearly staid he knew the kid was sweet on Len and Len gave one back that said he knew too but he wasn’t sure what to do about it.  Mick shook his head, he’d leave it be for now, but it worried him how Len seemed to be swallowed back into that blank emptiness again before he even remotely had a chance to show emotion.  
  
“Sorry about the face thing.” Len said when he noticed Mick staring at him.  “It was ten or twenty deaths in that I think something didn’t come back right... It hurts to feel things, so my brain short of shuts it off.  I think it’s still all being stored in there.  I’m probably in for some shitty flash backs and out bursts.” Len looked at his friend, apologizing with his eyes for the ass he was going to make of himself later.  
  
“Eh, you fixed me when the Time Masters brainwashed me.  I’d be a shit friend if I didn’t stick with you through this.”  
  
“Yeah, but I don’t think kicking my ass in a fight would help here.” Len almost smiled for a second but the fleeting moment of joy vanished into the din of shadows that had most of his consciousness.  
  
“I’m going to see about checking on everyone else, okay, and give you two some time alone.” Barry moved and walked off out the door, closing it behind him.  
  
“The hell did that come from?” Mick asked looking at Len.  
  
“No clue.  I like it.  But I don’t know what to do with it.” Len sighed, his shoulders sagging as he looked at the bed.  
  
“I think the attitude scares me more then the wounds.” Mick finally said.  
  
“You and me both.  I don’t like being... Broken.”  
  
“Kid says I get first dibs and burning anyone alive who had a hand in doing this to you.”  
  
“There you go just making friends all over the place.” Len shook his head.  
  
“He grows on you.” Mick looked through the glass at where Ray and Barry where talking.  
  
“It’s good to see you in love with someone who can touch you with out burning you to death.” Len said eyeing Mick.  
  
“Yeah.  And he gets it.  He doesn’t share it, but he gets the need.  He’s been getting me into couciling and lets me burn things when I need to.”  
  
“It help?”  
  
“Yeah.  And the sex is pretty fucking great too.”  
  
“Should be.  He looks limber.”  
  
“Flexible as hell.” Mick smirked.  
  
“Always a fine trait.” Len nodded.  
  
“I think he’s latching onto the science to not deal with the torture part of what happened to you.” Mick said as he watched Ray talking with the others as they filtered in.  
  
“The thing in Russia?”  
  
“That and other things.  Haircut’s got issues with torture.” He looked at Len.  
  
“Sorry to set off his triggers.” Len looked at the bed.  
  
“Eh, we’ll have a talk about it later.  I had to make sure the room they gave me here had sound proofing.  We’re loud.” Mick smirked.  
  
“He’s a screamer isn’t he?”  
  
“More like cursing.  God he has a foul mouth when I’m breeding him.”  
  
“Oh, that I find interesting.”  
  
“Trust me, if the sound proofing isn’t good enough you’ll hear it later.”  
  
“I’ll hold you to that later.” Len seemed to relax.  
  
“So how’s it being a meta now?”  
  
“Interesting.  I see what Mardon was always on about.  The need to use it, the want like a drug.  I get to where I can stand up I’ll try out more.  But...” Len held out his hand and let the ice form on the skin.  “I can do that so far.” He shook it off and wiped his hand off on the bed linen.  “Who knows where it’ll go.  I just worry about what else they might have changed.”  
  
“I heard about the tracker in your ankle.”  
  
“I’m tempted to cut it out myself.” Len looked down at his feet.  
  
“If I thought we could get you to the ship and fixed up before you bleed out, I’d say go for it.” Mick crossed his arms.  “But I have a feeling the kid would have a panic attack if you tried that.”  
  
“And I’m betting they put in safe guards to make sure I couldn’t just have it removed.” Len looked hatefully down at his feet.  “For all I know it’ll teleport me back to where they held me or vaporize me or worse.”  
  
“Worse?”  
  
“Leave me alive after it kills all of you.” Len looked up then.  
  
“Yeah, I’m so taking the kid up on roasting their asses.”  
  
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Len looked away, his eyes and mind drifting to that place again.  “I don’t think I’ve ever been that out classed and out manned ever.  I don’t want anyone near them.” He hardened his look.  “Promise me you wont let them take Lisa.” His eyes were a little too wide suddenly.  
  
“I promise.” Mick held Len’s hand.  “If it’s down to them having us with no way out I’ll make sure they can’t do shit to her.” Mick said quietly.  
  
“Good.  Quick and painless.”  
  
“She wont even know what’s happened, and they wont be able to bring her back later.”  
  
“That’s the hard part...” Len sighed.  “At one point I was just a head and a torso with my chest open so my organs were all out in the open and they let me bleed out like that while they pumped me full of shit that made my nerves feel like they were on fire.  When I finally died they still managed to bring me back.” He looked up at Mick.  
  
“They able to bring ashes back?”  
  
“They never got that far.  They burned me to see how I took it, and when my back got like it is...” He absently touched at his shoulder.  “They panicked and stopped that line of experimenting.  I don’t think their tech works well with fire.”  
  
“Quick and easy and then ashes after.” Mick nodded.  
  
“You’re the only one I trust to make sure.  But only if there’s no other way.”  
  
“They will never touch your sister.” Mick promised.  
  
“Good.” Len started crying then and Mick walked over and put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing and letting him feel the pain of having to discuss how to kill his sister if they got into a nightmare situation.  It was a place no one had any business being.  But as he thought about the hell he’d experienced at these mysterious people’s hands already and what they could do to his baby sister, he felt better knowing Mick would ensure they’d never get the chance.  He’d go back on the slab for the rest of time if it meant they never touched his sister.  Hell he knew if Mick survived he’d make sure Len died one and for all and didn’t come back.  And that thought made him feel safer then it had any right to.  “I only trust you with this.”  
  
“I know.” Mick squeezed.  “I know.”


End file.
